Today will be fine

Signs of life

2006-07-10T22:46:00.000-07:00

Today will be fine but cold after a cold night.

To determine if pre-human intelligent species existed we need to know what to look for and then look. The hard part is knowing what to look for. This is a fundamental question in science. We are looking for life on Mars, but there is debate about what signs would prove that life had existed. This debate exists for signs of early life on Earth, for signs of human habitation, for species definition and for countless searching after evidence to provide fact, sequence and theory.

I'm interested in terrestrial intelligent life.

What mark would they leave that we can find today?

Hypothesis

2006-05-25T23:46:00.000-07:00

Today will be fine after a cool morning.

We tend to have a 'river of time' view of the world and this leads us to viewing ourselves as the downstream product of an evolutionary factory, where we are the latest and best ever model. What if this view isn't true? We might just be the most intelligent fish in the stream, at this moment in time, but we can't look back with any certainty.

Base hypothesis:

1) We are not the only species to develop a high level of 'intelligence'
2) A species with a high level of intelligence should leave some trace of its existence

How can we test this hypothesis?

Lucky break

2004-12-08T01:01:00.000-08:00

Today will be fine and very hot.

If we humans evolved our, shall we call it, intelligence and no other species did then perhaps we have a couple of things about us that tipped evolution in our favour, in this regard. Perhaps the hands, or speech or social pressures. I don't find these compelling, but if there were unique factors then should we be genetically modifying some other species to give them the 'lucky break'. They can inherit (or share) the earth sometime in the future.

Footprints

2004-12-07T23:54:00.000-08:00

Today will be fine and hot.

According to Bill Bryson's recent book "A short history..." life on earth may have begun 3.85 billion years ago. That is a long time. I'm sure that the intelligent life forms we know are large and complex but self selection for intelligence must push evolution in that direction, given time. It seems to me more likely that we got lucky and have survived long enough as a species to breed to the proportions where our mark on the planet will be long lasting.

But if we got lucky then there must be other species who didn't get lucky. Where are their traces? Can we deduce what we should look for and then go looking?

A retrospective terrestrial SETI...

Bright eyes

2004-12-07T01:02:00.000-08:00

Today will be fine and hot, with strong easterly winds in the morning and a light coastal sea breeze in the afternoon.

Are we the first intelligent species?

Using the term intelligent loosely I wonder how it could be possible that in the great expanse of time that life has been on the earth that another species hasn't evolved a level of intelligence that would rival our own. If they had evolved, but their numbers had never been as large as ours then perhaps they wouldn't have left a large enough footprint behind for us to recognise. Or perhaps they did and we have been blindsided by our egocentric view of the 'progress' of life and overlooked the signs.

What would we look for?

No one will be in any doubt that we inhabited the earth, I suspect, but will they recognise our intelligence?

Seen a good film?

2004-11-18T18:49:00.000-08:00

Today will be fine and warm, with strong winds in the morning and a light coastal sea breeze in the afternoon.

Sad to say that in conversation I couldn't think of a single film that I'd seen this year, much less a decent one. Eventually I dragged from my memory two decent films, of the three or four that I've seen. I Robot was worth the price. For someone raised on Asimov I was pleasantly surprised that much of the quirky, unworldly asimovian view was retained while still providing a coherent and watchable story. The other decent film was the third Harry Potter. Not very often that I could go back and watch a film all over again, but this was just so great to see. The texture of the sets was a joy, and I even jumped once or twice. I'd forgotten the plot, even though I've read the book twice, but no surprise on that front. For me the world is a constant surprise as the past fades like footprints behind me on a wet beach.

Reminds me that I've not been to JK's website for some time http://www.jkrowling.com/. What a revelation that was. My kids will not find all of the web superficial with such creativity, all at speed.

Hmm, must see Manchurian Candidate...